The Fairy Tail Tale
by SmirkJr
Summary: Fairy Tail is in chaos when they end up switching bodies, but a mysterious stranger fixes that. I'm not yet good at summaries. This is actually a crossover, but I can't find the 'Anime X-overs' option, so I left it as a Fairy Tail story since it takes place in Fiore. I'll eventually add romance, but I have to work on it, so don't expect it within a month.
1. Chapter 1: The Red-Haired Stranger

This story starts right after the Galuna Island Arc, where, in the anime only, a weird request shows up on the board for 500,000J that says 'Figure out what this says'. Natsu reads it and he switches bodies with Loke. Also, Gray and Lucy switch bodies, along with Erza and Happy. It's perfect since they never explained how the guild fixed everything after the 30-minute time limit (that's how long they had after the spell was cast to get things back to normal) and everything was just fine in the following episode. I don't mind spoiling that one episode because it only appeared in the anime and it was a filler. Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail. I also don't own anything else you may recognize from other media...

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"I think this is way out of my league..."

Things were super freaky around Fairy Tail today... y'know, more than usual. Basically put, Natsu, Erza, Lucy, Happy, and Gray had gotten back from Galuna Island. Erza had asked where Master Makarov was, but Macao had said he was at some sort of important meeting. Sighing with relief at being "safe for now" from the Master's serious punishment, with Lucy freaking out that she didn't know, the five of them stayed and waited around, Loke greeting them. He had tried to run from Lucy, only to accidentally walk into Erza and fall over. Natsu found a weird request on the request board. The request said, "Read this," in a circle with an arrow that pointed to an ancient spell known as Changeling. Natsu read it without much caution, not understanding what he was reading (the request said to find out what the writing meant). Suddenly, a glow appeared and, after it went away, Natsu had switched bodies with Loke (who was lying on the floor behind him), Gray and Lucy had swapped places, and Erza swapped with Happy. At first, it only seemed that they were themselves acting strange until Erza (in Happy's body) figured out that they had switched bodies. Then they started panicking.

Then the Master returned and told them that they were affected by a spell known as Changeling, and it was a very old one, too. Once he said the Changeling spell also switches magic, everyone tried being themselves in each other's bodies, but it didn't work out so well, like how Loke had scared away a couple girls on the street when he accidentally drooled fire, or how Lucy (in Gray's body) wouldn't let Gray (in Lucy's body) start with his stripper habit. Then, to make things worse, the Master added that you needed to undo Changeling within 30 minutes of activation (unless you want to be permanently swapped) and Mirajane said that 16 minutes had already passed. All the ones who had swapped figured out after she had said that that, since their magic had not switched with them, they all sucked majorly at their new magic, with Natsu not even being able to use Loke's magic. Luckily, Levy had showed up and said she would fix things. She sat down and got to work with fixing the problem. Over the ensuing 13 minutes, with the exception of the Jet/Droy Cheering Squad, who were pre-occupied with cheering Levy on, and Elfman, who eventually started helping them, everyone was tense, with chaos brewing between everyone as they tried to prepare for the worst.

Finally believing she cracked the spell with about 10 seconds left, she tried her idea of reading the spell backwards, which did work... however, it only really helped Lucy and Gray. It not only left the remaining 4 original victims as they were, but it even switched Elfman with Cana, Master Makarov with Mirajane, and Jet with Droy (though nobody really noticed _their_ switch much). This sent the whole guild into a panic to the present. Then, all of a sudden, an unfamiliar voice shouted, "EXCUSE MEEEEEEEE!" This quieted down everyone and brought their attention to the door, where a red-haired boy with a goatee and a backpack stood. He was pretty tall, had a sword sheathed at his hip, and an blue eyepatch.

Clearing his throat, he asked, "Hey, did I come at a bad time? What's going on here?"

Erza (in Happy's body) walked up to the newcomer, who looked down as she said, "Sorry about the mess here. You actually did catch us at a bad time. You see, we accidentally read an ancient spell that switches a person's mind with that of somebody nearby. Now, quite a few of us are stuck in someone else's body with no idea how to use that person's magic. We tried to fix it, but we didn't even have half an hour, and we failed..." Erza looked down sadly before she could even finish.

"Wow. Such a spell exists? That's crazy!" the red-haired guy exclaimed.

"Aye!" said Happy (in Erza's body) with a fish in his mouth (or would it be _her_ mouth since it's Erza's body?).

"Eeeh... you have a fish in your mouth..." the newcomer awkwardly noted.

"Aye!" he simply repeated, smiling more.

"Hmm..." The man simply stood there with his hand on his chin, looking away from Happy (in Erza's body). "Hang on... I have the perfect solution!"

The whole guild went quiet.

"This will be the perfect chance! Okay, for this to work, I need everyone who got switched to stand in the middle next to the one who was switched with them and everyone else to stand back," he instructed, walking towards the middle of the guild hall.

"Why? Perfect chance for what?" Happy asked innocently.

"I'll tell you afterwards. For now, just help me," he replied.

"Hold on! What makes you think we can trust you?" Natsu (in Loke's body) asked.

"Hang on, Loke... err, Natsu. I don't see how we have much choice. We just have to trust him," Master Makarov said (in Mira's body).

With Natsu grudgingly complying while grumbling, everyone else did the same. Here the red-haired guy was standing in the middle of the circle made by the pairs of switch victims (Cana and Elfman, Natsu and Loke, Erza and Happy, Jet and Droy, and Mirajane and Master Makarov). He held out his hand, palm facing the ground.

" **Convert: Magic!** " Once he said this, his hand glowed purple.

" **Room!** " After he said this, a light purple magic circle appeared under the circle and a purple transparent dome formed over it, catching everyone's attention.

" **Shambles!** " At this, the switch victims tensed, their eyes widened. After a couple of seconds, with the magic circle gone, they started moving around.

"I... I'm back in my own body!" Erza exclaimed, looking down at her gauntlet-covered hands.

"Me too!" Cana noted.

"Hahahaha! I'm me again!" Natsu happily declared.

"It worked!" Mirajane said thankfully.

The guild cheered for another couple minutes until the Master silenced them, gaining their attention. He turned to the red-haired stranger and asked, "Thank you for switching us back, but how did you do it?"

This shifted all the attention to him as he answered. "I eventually recognized the 'ancient spell' the cat mentioned earlier as the lost spell Changeling. I knew that, if I didn't help you, you would have eventually thought to cast the spell again to reverse it. _However_ ," he quickly quelled the rising comments, "that would not help at all. For example, if you used Fire Magic and your friend used Water Magic, activating Changeling once will let you use Water Magic in your friend's body while he gets to use Fire Magic in yours. However, activating it again will make you two switch back to your original bodies, but you will still have your friend's Water Magic, and likewise, he will have your Fire Magic. The magic of those involved can't be swapped more than once by this spell. Luckily, I had other techniques for switching bodies and I went with the least awkward one-"

"'The least awkward one'? What does that mean?!" Lucy wondered nervously.

"I won't answer that one right now," the redhead answered blankly.

"Why?" Mirajane asked.

"Because we just met," the stranger answered.

"Well, what's your name, man? I gotta thank ya properly for helping us there!" Natsu said cheerfully.

"I'm Bronco. You're Natsu Dragneel, right?" Bronco answered.

"Yep. How'd you know?" Natsu wondered.

"Well, Fairy Tail's pretty famous, so it's not hard to tell who's who. For example, I came here looking for Master Makarov because I had something to ask him," Bronco replied, turning to the Master.

"Oh? And what might that be?" Makarov asked.

"I wanted to join Fairy Tail."

The guild hall went silent.

"Why?" the Master asked. His face remained stoic.

"I needed a reason? Hmm... well, I guess you could call it "I wanted to join a good guild" and I found in my research that this was the best place. Do you know how hard it is to find the right guild through what others say about it alone?" Bronco replied. Makarov simply remained stoic for a couple more seconds, apparently thinking, before he smiled.

"Well, sounds good to me! Welcome to Fairy Tail!" The guild hall was next filled with the cry of "Welcome!" by all its inhabitants.

"Yeah! Let's have a welcome party!" Natsu shouted, which everyone agreed with.

During the party...

Bronco was walking around the party pretty aimlessly. He had gotten his Fairy Tail mark over his eyepatch, so that it went off the sides of it and onto the areas both above and below his eye. On his eyepatch, it was bright red, but on his skin, it was dark blue. He was somewhat lost in his complacence when he ran into Natsu and Lucy talking.

"Oh, hey Bronco!" Lucy greeted.

"Hey. You're Lucy, right?" he asked, smiling back at her.

"Yeah. Did you hear about me?" Lucy asked.

"Nope. I can see your Gate Keys from here and you are the only Celestial Mage to join Fairy Tail that I can remember. But you did appear in Sorcerer Weekly when you went with Natsu, Gray Fullbuster, and Erza Scarlet, who are pretty well-known around here, to stop Lullaby," he answered.

"Wow, you sure know a lot about us!" Natsu commented.

"Yeah, well, like I said, I did a lot of research..." Bronco answered. Suddenly, his eyes glazed over and he stared off into space. Lucy and Natsu looked at him curiously before, after a couple seconds, he returned to normal.

"Hey, everything okay? You kinda spaced out there for a minute," Natsu asked.

"...It's nothing," Bronco replied.

"Really? You looked worried there for a minute..." Lucy noted.

"I appreciate you worrying about the newbie, but it's nothing. Really."

"...If you say so," Natsu conceded after a couple seconds, sighing.

Changing the subject, Lucy noted, "So, you got your Fairy Tail mark."

"I did. I always wondered how they did it. Now I know. It's an interesting feeling to find out things you never knew by simply being alive, isn't it?" he answered.

"Yeah, I guess so," Lucy smiled.

After the party...

By the end of the party, it was already very dark, and the guild hall was nearly empty, with only Mirajane and Master Makarov in the guild hall. He was leaving, though, so Mirajane was left to clean the pretty-trashed guild hall. While she was cleaning, she had no idea the place was being watched. The person was lying in wait, hiding behind a corner outside, waiting for the last member of Fairy Tail to leave. When she finally did, and was out of earshot of him, he quietly laughed in anticipation. He pounded his fist into his hand, smiling, his hand becoming metallic in the light of the guild hall.

"Time to teach these Fairies a lesson..."

Then he heard footsteps and hid again quickly. Mirajane walked through the door.

"I can't believe I forgot the lights..." she said to herself, turning them off and then leaving again.

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Well, here is the start of the second arc of Worlds. Not as long as the first chapter of 'On to One Piece!', but good enough. Later!


	2. Chapter 2: Phantom Lord

Disclaimer: I do not own. Bronco, I do own, but nothing else.

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Mirajane was walking towards the guild hall the next morning after Bronco's admission into Fairy Tail, casually yet cheerfully humming a song as she was walking. It wasn't long before she had walked along the path to the door of the guild hall, still cheerful. She opened the door and was immediately stopped in her tracks before she could get past the threshold.

"Mirajane! Watch out! He's still on the ground!" the Master warned quickly, prompting Mirajane to look down and see a facedown man lying on the ground.

"Waah!" she cried in surprise, pointing to the limp body. "Who's this? Why is he lying on the floor?" she asked.

"That's Bronco. I just got here a minute ago, and I was going to move him, but I had to deal with something small first," he answered.

"Well, why didn't you move him first?" Mira asked blankly.

"I would have forgotten it otherwise. You see, my neighbor keeps pestering me about getting a job. And yet he's jobless and poor. Why he doesn't take his own advice I'll never know-"

"You know, Master," Mirajane interrupted him awkwardly, putting down her bag, "maybe we should move him first and see if he's injured before we get into a long conversation."

"You're right. I'll help you," Makarov said.

Later, in the infirmary...

Bronco's uncovered eye opened. 'Where am I?' he wondered, sitting up. He saw he was clothed as he had been yesterday when it hit him.

'Oh yeah... The Iron Dragon Slayer from Phantom Lord tried to destroy the guild hall last night, but I sensed him behind a corner and hid...'

 _Third-person flashback, a short time after the guild hall emptied..._

 _"Whew. That was close. Wouldn't want to make any of their members too mad before I've even started," Gajeel chuckled evilly, his hand metallizing and rounding out._

 _"Too late, Dragon Slayer."_

 _Gajeel looked around in alarm. "Who's there?" he yelled._

 _"What, you can't see me? I guess you must be very blind, then."_

 _Gajeel growled in anger. "You mean something by that?" he asked threateningly._

 _"Why don't you figure out where I am before I send you back to the Phantom Lord guild hall in failure and defeat... Gajeel Redfox?"_

 _The Dragon Slayer was quite furious up to the point where he heard his name. "How did you know my name?!" he demanded._

 _"I guessed," the voice answered facetiously._

 _"Why, you...!" Gajeel had apparently finally pinpointed where the stranger was and looked towards where he should've been, only to see nothing there._

 _"Well, whaddya know, ya found me. Honestly, why'd it take you so long?"_

 _Gajeel lunged for the stranger, whom Gajeel could only sense through his nose and ears, using his metallic hand._

 _He didn't expect the stranger to still be standing rather than sent flying despite a direct hit, nor did he expect to be knocked out with a Sleep card that appeared seemingly out of nowhere._

 _A ripple in the air caused the figure to appear, his blue eyepatch visible in the moonlight, along with the rest of him._

 _"Man, that hurt. As if I didn't have enough problems..." Bronco complained, lifting the unconscious intruder and carrying him to the door before taking off one of the gloves he had apparently put on earlier and pushing the Dragon Slayer with his hand. He was sent flying afterwards with a_ _loud_ 'pop' _noise._

Back to the present

Bronco felt his forehead and felt gauze there, but he only felt a bruise where he had been hit.

'Thank goodness for crazy durability. I should probably let this heal, anyway,' he thought gratefully before getting out of the bed.

Just then, Mirajane appeared in the doorway. "Oh, good, you're up. Are you hungry? I made some breakfast for you," she greeted cheerfully.

"Thank you, Mirajane. That would be nice. Also, could I call you 'Mira'?" Bronco answered.

"Sure, you can if you like. Everyone calls me that anyway," Mirajane said with a smile. Then she left the room, with Bronco following her.

While he was eating, Cana and Erza showed up, both surprised to see Bronco present, and with a bruise on his forehead eating eggs and bacon. He was apparently really into his food, because neither of them could get his attention. Even when they tried slapping him, he simply moved his head as if he saw it coming, swallowed the bacon he had chewed, and said, "I apologize for seeming rude, but this food is really good and I haven't eaten breakfast yet." Frowning, they decided to leave him alone while Erza asked for a slice of strawberry cake and Cana went behind the bar to pick up a barrel of booze.

When he finished, he noticed that a few more members had shown up; among the more notable were Lucy, Happy, Natsu, and Gray (who was clothed). After he gave Mira the plate and thanked her for the delicious meal, he joined Team Natsu at the table with a drink, where he greeted them when he sat down.

Lucy was the first to speak, asking what had happened and pointing to the gauze on Bronco's head. He recalled his encounter with Gajeel, speaking modestly of the short period of time. When he was done, Erza screamed, "WHAT?!", which captured everyone's attention as she continued yelling, "Iron Gajeel from Phantom Lord came last night to destroy the guild hall?" At this, everyone in the guild hall fell silent.

"Well, he was going to, but I sent him away. He will be back at Phantom Lord's doorstep in four days," Bronco answered.

The guild hall was then filled with the voices of people reacting to this through conversation with their friends. In the midst of all the talking, Lucy voiced her own reaction to the occupants at the table.

"Phantom Lord?! The guild with as crazy a reputation as Fairy Tail?"

"You scared, Luce?" Natsu joked.

"Well... I actually couldn't decide which guild to join between Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord, and I think they're just as crazy as us," she replied nervously.

"Come on, what are you so scared of, Lucy? It's not like they actually managed to destroy the guild hall," Gray admonished.

"Yeah, but they might've, if Bronco wasn't there... Hey, Bronco, why _were_ you here last night anyway?" she wondered, changing the subject.

"Well, I don't wanna brag, but I sensed his presence while we were at the party and I hid myself using a mirage after I walked away and disappeared into the crowd. Then, he didn't notice me until I caught him off guard," he explained.

"You didn't brag..." Happy noted.

"Oh, so _that's_ why you spaced out on us yesterday," Natsu noted.

"You 'sensed' his presence? I guess you used heightened senses, didn't you?" Erza asked.

"Well... that's not exactly what it is, but it's kinda close," he answered.

Opting to change the subject, Lucy looked for something else to mention before remembering something crucial.

"Hey... isn't Phantom Lord going to try to take revenge on us for what Bronco did to that Gajeel guy?" she wondered, becoming nervous again.

"Nah, not really. They won't know I stopped him until he gets there, and, even then, with the method I used to send him away, the most damage they'd find once he gets there is a crater where the giant air bubble will have crashed into the ground in front of the guild hall, and he will not be injured whatsoever. Sure, probably very hungry, but not injured," he explained, calmly taking a sip of his drink.

"Wow. That must have been convenient. Who knew such a spell existed?" Lucy said, amazed.

"It wasn't a spell," Bronco said blankly, earning stares from the table.

"Really?" Natsu wondered, leaning in.

"That makes no sense. If it wasn't a spell, then what was it?" Gray wondered.

"Well, it's _sort of_ a spell... Here, I'll show you." With this, Bronco ungloved his hand, revealing a weird salmon-colored paw pad.

"What the heck?" Natsu commented.

"Aye..." Happy added.

"Go ahead and poke it if you want. It's safe," Bronco said, causing Natsu and Happy to start poking it.

"Wow, it's actually really soft!" Natsu noted.

"Yep! It's supposed to be. This paw can push anything. Go ahead and punch it as hard as you can."

"Well, okay then!" Natsu pounded his fist into his palm, flames erupting in his hands. He reeled his arm back to get ready. He punched with all his might at the paw pad...

It did not move the hand. Not even a little. Unless you're thinking of _Natsu's_ hand, because _his_ hand went flying out the door with him.

Happy and Lucy just stared in amazement, mouths agape, but Erza and Gray hardly reacted.

"Whoops... I might have went a little overboard there..." Bronco noted, suddenly very shy.

"Geez, ya think?" Lucy yelled.

"That was impressive," Erza noted.

"Why are you so calm?!" Lucy yelled to her.

Something caught Bronco's eye. As he looked out the door, he asked, "Hey, are those your clothes, Gray? Why is Natsu wearing them?"

Looking down, Gray's mouth flung open and he scrambled out the door to get his clothes, and all others present sweatdropped.

"Does he have some sort of stripping habit?" Bronco asked.

"You have no idea..." Lucy answered.

"And this time, he dressed someone else who was already wearing clothes..." Erza added.

"That's even weirder than Usual Gray, especially since the one who got dressed was Natsu of all people-"

"Don't say it, cat!" Lucy threatened, holding up a fist.

"...He liiiiiiiikes him."

"Why, you...!" With this, Happy sprouted wings and took off, with Lucy chasing him, shouting, "NOBODY NEEDS THAT WEIRD IMAGE, YOU FRIGGIN FLYING CAT! GET BACK HERE SO I CAN PAY YOU BACK!" Since she couldn't look up and down at the same time, she ran into a bunch of her fellow guildmates and knocked them into each other, eventually starting a fight.

Bronco just stared at the chaos with a wide eye, his mouth threatening to betray his straight face.

"Ah, today's brawl is off to a crazy start too, I see..." Erza said to herself with a smile before she heard him laughing.

"Wow! This atmosphere is fun! Especially watching people beat each other up for no real reason," he commented, holding his gut.

"Glad to see you like our everyday atmosphere," Erza commented, still smiling.

"'Everyday', huh? Cool!" Bronco commented, smiling.

Suddenly, his uncovered eye opened wide and his pupil had a blue glow to it, which Erza noticed, making her stop smiling.

"Bronco? What's going on?" She tried waving her armored hand in front of his face, earning no response. She noticed the blue glow vanish and he seemed to be back to normal. "What just happened? Your eye was glowing..."

"You saw that, huh?" Looking around and seeing no one was paying attention, he leaned closer to her and started whispering in her ear.

"I sometimes see visions of the future. My eye glows like that whenever it happens," he whispered.

"What?" Erza said out loud. It wasn't a yell like last time.

"I know. Most people don't believe that one. But you're going to have to trust me. You see, in my vision, I saw a couple of wizards from Fairy Tail... They were hung somewhere and hurt. Also, I saw someone I recognized as one of Phantom Lord's Element Four take Lucy hostage... Erza, I don't think Phantom Lord is just getting cheap revenge." All this was spoken in a whisper.

"...Who were they? The ones who were attacked and hung on a tree, I mean," Erza asked.

"I don't know their names, but I saw all three of them,"-here he pointed to where Team Shadow Gear was gathered-"in my vision."

"Team Shadow Gear? Why?" Erza wondered.

Gray soon returned (still without clothes) with Natsu on his trail.

Happy to change the subject, Bronco said, "Umm, Gray, you still don't have clothes on."

Gray looked down and freaked out again. "How'd that happen?"

"I don't know, man. You just have a problem."

"Right... says the hotheaded idiot."

"You wanna go, Snow Queen?!"

"Fine by me, Flamebrain!"

"Oh boy..." Bronco got up and went back to the bar, gave Mirajane his empty glass, and walked towards the door.

"Hey, where are you going, Bronco?" Happy yelled after him.

"I have some business I forgot to take care of," he responded over his shoulder, putting on his gloves and walking out the door.

...

At Phantom Lord's guild hall

Everyone was worried. All of Phantom Lord noticed that Gajeel was missing and hadn't yet trashed the guild hall of Fairy Tail. Most of them assumed Gajeel almost got caught in the middle of the night and had to run, but he had not yet returned. After all, most of them believed that no 'Fairies' could beat any of them, much less Gajeel. They've been on edge all day, randomly insulting Fairy Tail. Finally, their door opened and everyone looked, expecting to see their Dragon Slayer back and smiling, only to find a figure they had never seen before. Most of them saw his face first and stopped looking for anything once they found the Fairy Tail crest on his eyepatch.

"You! You're from Fairy Tail, aren't you?" one of them yelled.

"Why are you here? Did you decide to quit Fairy Tail to join us? 'Cause that was the right choice-" another started mockingly.

"Shut up. I just came here to ask why Gajeel tried to trash our guild hall last night. If none of you know, that's fine," Bronco said, his voice cold and hardened.

"Excuse me? Gajeel hasn't tried yet. Don't you see your pathetic guild hall still standing?" the first member that spoke asked.

"I do. I also saw Gajeel last night try to destroy the guild hall. I sent him away before he could do damage to anything. His punch was pretty weak, especially since I went easy on him," Bronco answered.

"You? Beat Gajeel? Yeah right, Fairy," one guy said mockingly, "sure you did. Gajeel would never be beaten by the likes of you Fairy trash. Why don't you keep your delusions to yourself and let us kick your ass since you're here?" Walking up to Bronco slowly, he got his hands ready for a hand sign, many of his fellow guildmates also preparing their magic like him.

"You can try," Bronco smiled, closing the door behind him.

Smirking arrogantly at what they thought was _his_ ignorance, they all used their different magics and attacked Bronco, who just stood there, unmoving. Dust kicked up as all attacks connected, nearly at once, and hit.

When that dust cleared, he still stood, not an injury on him.

"Was that the best you could do? Man, you guys are weak. I thought that Gajeel was a good indication of this guild's strength, but I guess not. Is he your strongest member or something?"

Everyone was surprised that he still stood, even after they had blown out the wall behind him.

"What did you do? What kind of magic was that?" the first guy asked.

"Magic? You guys call standing still 'magic'?" Bronco answered.

"You couldn't have been standing still. Otherwise you would be dead right about now," the second guy reasoned.

"Fine then, try again, if you must. But I'll be moving away from the gap right about now, since there are innocent people out there." Bronco started walking towards the center, all physical attacks going right through him.

"How did he not get hit?!" one of his attackers said, a little intimidated.

"This guy is just some crazy fast guy who can't attack shit. Good to know," another one said sarcastically, aiming it at Bronco.

Bronco made his way to the center of the room without trouble, while the Phantom Lord members made way once he was in the center. They tried attacking him again, with the same result. The only difference was that a lot of the mages closer to Bronco were hit by magic being used from the other side of the circle.

"Geez, what's with you, jerk? Too scared to fight us head on?" a Phantom mage jeered.

"Nope, too wise. What's with _you_ , attacking your own guildmates like they're the enemy? Too scared to fight me head on?" Bronco chided back.

"Why, you...!" With that, the guy ran in and attacked physically, only for the attack to pass through him and cause the attacker unbalance.

"Are you done?"

"Everyone, hit him with everything you've got!" Once again, everyone tried hitting him with destructive magic, hitting members of their own guild in the process, and they still didn't hit him. One guy saw a lightning bolt pass through him and have absolutely no effect. This only served to terrify him. Once the dust cleared, Bronco still stood, perfectly unharmed, shocking the rest of the guild.

"Are you done trying to prove yourselves? Because I have something to tell you," he said coldly.

"Wh-What is going on? Why can't we hit you?" one of them asked.

"I thought I was dodging, but I guess not. Either way..." Bronco looked down at the ground to shadow his eyes, "... none of you have the ability to fight me, right? Since I've clearly beat you by just standing still..." Bronco suddenly jerked his head up and glared at the guy he was facing, who, along with the rest of the small fry, fainted with fear plastered on their face and foam coming out their mouths.

He simply paused, "... I guess my turn came and went. Isn't that right, Element Four?" he spoke to the room, causing the Element 4 to materialize in front of him in their various ways: a monocle man grew from underground, a blindfolded man materialized out of thin air with streaks of tears on his face, a blue-haired girl flowed down from the rafters above and formed herself, and a guy with black-and-white hair jumped down from the stairs above.

"You could detect us, couldn't you?" the black-and-white haired guy said.

"Indeed. I assume you want to fight me."

"Correct." the blue-haired girl said.

"Sorry, I don't have time. You can easily tell your master what happened, right? After all, he's going to want a new guild now, probably. And while you're at it, give him a message for me, since you're apparently not so weak as to behave like these idiots on the ground. Tell him if he hurts Fairy Tail, I may be forced to move next time I attack." Bronco was no longer hosting an amused look. Now it was more of a deathly-serious look.

" _Non_ , _non_ , _non_ , zat is all wrong! With 3 _non_ s I correct your mistake!" the monocle man started, "Zat mistake was believing you would leave here alive!"

"You should focus on gathering a lot of metal for Gajeel. He should be back in about three or four days. He is completely unhurt, but he will still probably be hungry and mad. Tell him my message too, okay?" Bronco said seriously, ignoring him. After his sentence, he formed an L-shape with his hands, more specifically his middle and pointer fingers, and he vanished into a vortex that appeared out of nowhere. The blindfolded guy tried to attack him, but he was already gone.

"That man's magic was all over the place. First, he made all our guild's attacks go through him without a scratch, then he knocks out all the lesser mages here..." that blindfolded guy noted.

"Yes, we must be weary of him. He seems to be unaffected by our guildmates magic when they attacked, and I could feel the power of his attack from the rafters. Is this Fairy Tail's strongest wizard?" the blue-haired woman noted.

"That man was new." A familiar voice sounded from the top of the stairs. The Element Four turned and bowed.

"Master Jose." His Element Four all addressed him at once.

"He came to our guild hall, thinking he could mess with us because he thinks Fairy Tail is unbeatable. I saw that. It must have been a Thought Projection. There's no other explanation for our guild doing so poorly against a Fairy Tail wizard. Still, it was a smart tactic to send a Thought Projection here so all our weak guild members would attack it and hit each other in the process. Well played, Makarov..." Master Jose analyzed.

"A Thought Projection?" the blue-haired woman asked.

"I suppose it's our turn now. All four of you, get ready. Once Gajeel makes his way back, we will attack Fairy Tail with the Magical Convergent Cannon: Jupiter."

After the Four left the guild hall with their Master, a man with long white hair peeked out from behind a pillar. His were green feline eyes.

"Hmm... so, he's on their side... Heheh, ya gotta admit, that Bronco loves his peace."

...

The next day...

"You WHAT?" Erza was furious upon learning what happened between Bronco and Phantom Lord the previous day.

"I went to their guild hall and they attacked each other. That's how their guild hall got so messed up." Erza had seen Phantom Lord's guild hall from Fairy Tail's, and when she wondered why their guild hall had so many holes and a couple craters outside, Bronco told her since he was there.

"That makes no sense. They must have been able to tell you were from Fairy Tail by the emblem on your face, so why would they be attacking each other instead? And why were you going there anyway?" she reasoned.

"Well, I wanted to see if any of them could tell me why Gajeel came and tried to trash the guild hall, and they all attacked me when I got there and I had to dodge. I didn't attack at all, I swear." Bronco was talking to Erza alone until this point where Natsu and Happy showed up.

"Hey, guys. Whatcha talking about?" Natsu asked cheerfully like usual.

"This idiot," Erza started, pointing to Bronco, "went over to Phantom Lord's guild hall and made them attack him. He kept dodging and their guild hall got badly damaged, and their members attacked each other by accident."

"Whoa, really? I wanna see!" Natsu said, amazed.

"No way!" Erza said firmly.

"Aww, come on, why not?" he whined back.

"Because we don't want to start a guild war or The Magic Council will force us both to disband our guilds! Do you seriously want to lose Fairy Tail?" Erza shot back demonically.

"Of course not! I still wanna go see! Why can't I go see?!" Natsu yelled back.

"Because Phantom Lord is likely in their own guild hall by now. You going would signify a declaration of war between Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord!" Erza shouted again.

"So? We'll beat them!" Natsu countered.

"YOU'RE MISSING THE POINT!" Erza yelled, now furious.

As these two were arguing, Bronco was not at the seat where Erza had scolded him. It would appear he used the opportunity to sneak away from her hellish wrath...

...

As Bronco was walking through town an hour later, he came upon a crowd gathered around a pole. He couldn't see, so he asked someone in the back what was going on. He turned around and his eyes opened considerably larger.

"Oh, you must be from Fairy Tail. You may want to see this..." he said awkwardly.

"Okay," Bronco said, raising his voice to say, "EXCUSE ME! FAIRY TAIL WIZARD COMING THROUGH!"

As people started to notice him, they formed an aisle to let him pass. He started walking through, hearing people whisper speculations about who he was, seeing as nobody had heard of him. He kept a serious face, never taking his eyes off of what he saw as he walked down the newly-made aisle. Once he got close enough, he noticed more details about what he was seeing, but the general picture was the same...

Fairy Tail's Team Shadow Gear were hanging from oddly-shaped knives, which went through their hands, which were over their heads. Their bodies were limp, and the mark of Phantom Lord was painted on their persons somewhere, like on Levy's exposed midriff.

'Hmm... it's not the same as my vision... They were hung from a pole this time. There must be someone unique at the Phantom Lord guild. Someone who wasn't as biased, perhaps... Someone new.' Bronco was staring at them, seemingly calm but actually lost in thought, even when Team Natsu and Master Makarov showed up and used the aisle to see for themselves a couple seconds later.

Of course, their reactions were normal reactions with pretty much the same general idea: angry, sad, worried, and shocked. Though Erza was more shocked than any of them since she was the only one who knew...

'He was right... they _did_ hurt Levy's team... it was like he described it, too...'

She remembered how he described his vision. She, too, became lost in thought, staring at the hung wizards, until she heard wood snap. She abruptly jerked her head and saw her Master's staff on the ground, broken in two, as Lucy, Gray, Natsu, and Makarov all walked away, clearly angry (granted, the context made things easy to see, especially when Natsu shouted, "We're gonna beat those Phantom jerks! We'll make them pay!" out loud).

She was jarred from her thought when Bronco put his hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, Erza. They will heal. Most importantly, Phantom thought these three would be injured and unable to defend themselves."

"How are you so calm about this?! Our friends were _attacked_ , and worse is that they were hung in public... They may not even _live_ after this!" Erza was speaking in a quiet, angry tone, even though the crowd was dispersing as a team of medics arrived and took Team Shadow Gear off from the pole. They did have other injuries besides the stab wounds in the hands. Bronco just walked over to the stretchers where the three injured were.

"I am sorry, mister, but we need this area clear so we can administer first aid-" one of the nurses started.

"It's okay, I can take it from here. I feel responsible for this, and I can and will fix it," Bronco interrupted.

"Excuse me, but we need to administer first aid right now. These three are bleeding and may die from it-"

"Then go ahead and bandage up their wounds. I'll simply heal them afterwards," Bronco cut her off yet again.

"Right." As the nurse was working to bandage up the stab wounds of their hands, she asked Bronco, "So, you know Healing Magic?"

"Yes, I do," was Bronco's succinct answer.

"Can you actually heal these wounds, though? Aside from being stabbed through the hands, these three were also bruised quite a bit and they got cut on their midriff sections pretty badly..." the nurse asked as she was finishing up her bandage job.

"Yes, I can." Once again, Bronco answered plainly as he got into a stance. His hands were clapped together as in prayer, his eyes were closed, his positioning akimbo. He took a deep breath and focused. Once his free eye opened, it was glowing white.

" **Special Technique! Destiny Antibody: Heal!** " At calling out this name, he moved his hands so the palms faced the three of them. Instantly, a small wisp of light, no bigger than a fingernail, shot up out of each of them and releasing energy. Erza and the nurse watched as the green energy flowed out of the little wisps and hit all the wounds of the person below them like an octopus, as did the rest of the medics. As the beams of energy moved around to completely cover cuts and other things like that, they could see (much to their amazement) that the wounds were completely erased by them, leaving only a little steam in the process. Once the beams disappeared, as there were no more wounds, the wisps "shattered", as it were, into pieces before dissipating into the air.

Nobody talked for a minute as Bronco got each of them a blanket from the available ones lying out and the nurse examined what used to be the wounds; they were now pink skin, hot to the touch.

"Their wounds... they're completely gone!" she said, amazed.

Erza sighed in relief, while Bronco smiled at their getting better.

"That was beautiful, Bronco. Where did you learn how to do that?" she asked once the crowd of medics had disappeared, leaving the group of two (five, if you count the unconscious Team Shadow Gear) alone. They had sat at a nearby bench, taking their blanket-covered friends with them to watch them. Erza's tense mood was gone now, replaced by amazement.

"I invented that technique. It involves using magic energy among other types of spiritual vitality and also adapting to the specific person," Bronco said blankly.

"'Adapting'? How?" she asked.

"Well, if you remember, little wisps of light shot out of them when I initiated the technique. If you also recall this morning, if you could, I disappeared while you and Natsu were arguing. That was when I put these little wisps inside Levy, Jet, and Droy. They were Destiny Anti-bodies. They have had enough time to adapt to these three so that, when I started the technique, they already had 'gotten used to' them, if you will, and it used that information, along with its healing energy, to erase those wounds. If I hadn't injected the Destiny Anti-bodies into them this morning, but rather later, the Anti-bodies may have been getting used to their wounded bodies, and that would be bad since it wouldn't know those are the wounds it was made to heal and wouldn't do any healing." As Bronco explained, Erza nodded an affirmative whenever something familiar came up, like her arguing with Natsu.

"Wow, so it's a living medicine? That's very unique, and it seems to be very effective, too," Erza complimented.

"Thank you. Of course, there are drawbacks," Bronco said after.

"'Drawbacks'?" Erza asked, now with a concerned tone.

"Yeah. Without practice, using one of them can be very taxing, and I haven't had to use this in a long time. Also, I only used the Heal variant. I didn't use the Recover, which restores a person's vitality, so they will still be asleep for a while, as if they were still recovering. I didn't have time to prepare two Destiny Antibodies for each of them. At least I didn't have to use the most taxing one of them all..." As he said this, they were staring at Team Shadow Gear, and they stayed that way for a long time.

Finally, Erza broke the silence with an honest question.

"Hey, Bronco, what type of magic do you use?"

Bronco stared at her at this. "Hmm... Well, I'm not sure how to answer your question..."

"Why not?" she asked, getting slightly weary.

"Because I know and use quite a few types of magic. I guess you could say it was just stuff I picked up."

"Really? How many?" Erza asked with honest interest. Her eyes were a little wide.

"I've almost lost count... but I would guess there are around 10 I remember the most. However, I remember learning at least 90..."

"T-That many? It would take years to master all those different styles! How did you pull off such a feat?" Here her eyes were definitely wider. It seemed Bronco was a great source of endless surprises.

"I've had time..." he said enigmatically. He then got up and walked away slowly.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"Back to the guild hall. I have some thinking to do." With that, he left Erza to her stunned silence.

...

Back at the guild hall, Bronco stepped through the door to find it empty, save for Loke and Mirajane, the former of whom was lacking his usual entourage and flirting with the latter at the bar. He didn't seem to have any luck.

"Hey Loke, hey Mira. Where'd everyone go?"

"They went to attack Phantom Lord for hanging Levy, Jet, and Droy," Mira replied seriously.

"Oh..." Bronco walked over to the bar and sat down facing Mira and Loke.

"Hey, what's with the long face, man?" Loke asked, worried. Mira noticed it too, apparently.

"Well, I saw that in person..."

"Oh. Was it bad?" Mira asked.

"Yeah. They're alright, though. I healed them, so they should just be resting for a while. Their wounds are all gone and now this attack is for nothing..."

"You healed them?" asked Loke, which Bronco just affirmed.

"You know Healing Magic?" Mira asked.

"Something like that," Bronco replied calmly.

Suddenly, his normally red-colored eye (the pupils, not extreme fatigue) glazed over a shade of blue and he spaced out.

"Bronco?" Mira asked, waving her hand in front of his face.

"You okay, man?" Loke asked.

"What happened to you?"

"Oh, man, he's not hearing us!"

"Bronco!"

As suddenly as it started, his brief spacing-out ended. Bronco got up really suddenly, holding his hands in a position akin to that of one holding a ball, energies of all colors swirling around in the space, running towards the door.

"Where are you going?" asked Mira.

"No time to talk! I need to go!"

...

Later...

Now, it was nighttime and Fairy Tail was dismayed by their defeat. Sure, their previously hurt members were fine and sleeping in the infirmary, and sure, the others were alive, but their master had been drained of all his magic power and sent to Porlyusica, the antisocial healer. Most of them were either trying to talk their sorrows away or drown them in beer (Of course, Cana was trying to have a one-sided drinking contest with the rest of them, who all politely refused). Eventually, most of the members left the guild hall, with the exception of Erza, Mirajane, and Loke (who had his numerous lady friends this time).

"Hello, Mirajane. You saw Bronco earlier, right? Do you have any idea where he went? After him and I left, I dropped off Team Shadow Gear and left for Oak Town to help with the attack. He said he'd be back here, but I didn't see him at all." Erza was putting on her usual stoic expression.

"Yeah. Loke and I were chatting earlier and he came in and he was sad. He said that he had healed them and the fight became pointless. Then he suddenly spaced out," Mirajane recounted.

"Really?" Erza leaned forward, listening more attentively.

"Yeah. His eye was blue, though. Wasn't it red before?" Mira asked.

"His eye was blue?" Erza asked seriously.

"Uh-huh. Why? Does something stand out?" Mira responded.

"Oh... It's nothing..." Erza said mysteriously.

"Anyway, after he stopped spacing out, he left in a hurry. I wonder what happened..." Mirajane turned and continued with her duties as barmaid.

"Thank you, Mira." With that, Erza stood up and took her leave.

Outside, Erza paused along the path. She was clearly lost in thought.

'So, it happened again... Bronco, what was it this time?'

She was suddenly surprised by how easily she trusted this interpretation of events (though her _last_ experience turned out like he predicted before. She was more surprised when she suddenly spaced out like Bronco and saw...

... a very long and somewhat familiar cannon gathering magical power, showing a dark vortex. She was vaguely recalling what it was, bit by bit. The scene shifted and showed her the cannon firing a destructive blast of pure magic power straight at the Fairy Tail Guild Hall.

She returned to the World of the Living in a daze. She was hit with the double shock of seeing what she saw and actually being answered one of her mental rhetorical questions. She eventually started walking again, her mood pensive and her head buzzing with questions revolving around Bronco's mental note he had 'attached' with the vision.

'I'll see you in a couple of days, Erza.'

::::::::::::::::::::::

Whoo! Okay, sorry it took forever (if it _was_ ), but I just blanked for a little bit. Gonna try to update my other story, too. I should probably say that what will come in this story is going to be different from the canon storyline (somewhat). Bye!


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